


Sweet Tooth

by CrossingTheFourthWall



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Journal 3 spoilers, and family fluff, having some fun with sweet tooth shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 18:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11765673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrossingTheFourthWall/pseuds/CrossingTheFourthWall





	Sweet Tooth

Mabel kicked the front door open, plastic bags hanging from her arms. “We’re back!”

“And we’ve got a lot more candy than I think even Mabel knows what to do with,” Stanley grumbled as he followed his great-niece into the house. He too, carried a large number of bags, but they seemed to weigh him down a lot more than they did for Mabel.

“Great-Uncle Ford’s probably not gonna like that.” Dipper came over as Mabel and Stan put the bags on the kitchen table, then started pulling items out and putting them away in the refrigerator and up in the cupboards. “He left a note on the fridge when you guys left.” He pulled a piece of paper out of his vest and handed it over to Stan, who simply raised an eyebrow at it.

“Meh. Same old ‘dieting’ garbage he’s been trying to get on my back about since he came back.” Stan crumpled the paper and tossed it into the garbage can. “He thinks we’re getting too much sugar and not enough of the other stuff; did you know that?” He snorted. “We’re doing just fine without his stupid ‘dieting advice’.”

“Yeah!” Mabel added, punching the air for extra emphasis.

“I dunno.” Dipper frowned. “I mean, he’s got some pretty good ideas for some of this stuff, but--”

“Grunkle Stan, you got too many jelly beans!” Mabel pulled three plastic bags away from the rest of the pile. She pulled a bag out and gasped. “And they’re not even the gummy kind! You haven’t made that mistake since our first week here!”

“Whoops. Sorry, pumpkin.” Stan gained a sheepish expression, but there was an odd twinkle in his eye that Dipper wasn’t able to completely identify. “Guess we’ll just have to leave them to sit out for everyone else.”

A bowl was pulled out, and Mabel poured all the jelly beans that could fit inside before hiding the rest of the bags away in a cupboard. They left the bowl sitting out on the counter in plain sight and moved into the living room with a bag of freshly popped popcorn in order to watch a movie.

While they were arguing over what movie to watch, none of them noticed someone step into the kitchen and look around before pausing when he caught sight of the jelly beans….

**Time Break**

“Wendy and Soos have the day off today, right?” Mabel asked as they sat down to dinner.

“Yup.” Stan pulled the casserole out of the oven and took a deep sniff before putting it on the table. “The Shack  _ is _ closed; wouldn’t make sense to have them hanging around.”

“Then...who’s been eating the jelly beans?”

Dipper and Stan looked at each other at Mabel’s question, then over at the bowl of jelly beans.

“Someone’s been eating them?” Stanley pulled off the oven mitts and tipped the bowl in order to get a better look at its contents. His eyebrows rose when he saw over half of them were gone. “Huh.”

“I haven’t touched them!” Dipper raised his hands and looked between Stan and Mabel.

“They aren’t the gummy kind.” Mabel shook her head. “Grunkle Stan?”

“Nah. I like toffee peanuts better.” Stan put the bowl back, shaking his head. “Jelly beans have  _ weird _ flavors and I don’t like the texture.”

Dipper and Mabel exchanged looks at that.

“Then...who’s been eating them?” Dipper looked back at Stan.

Stan tapped his chin for a moment, and then a sly grin crossed his face. “I think I know who it is. He’s not going to come out and tell us, though -- we gotta catch him in the act.”

“Catch--” Dipper paused, and his eyes widened. “You don’t mean--”

“Shh.” Stan held a finger to his lips and grinned. “I’ve got an idea, but we’re gonna have to be quiet about it. You guys up for it?”

Dipper and Mabel exchanged looks before looking back at Stan and nodding.

“All right. Let’s talk about this after dinner. Don’t want him sneaking up on us, y’know?”

“You got it!” Mabel gave Stan a thumbs-up as Stan sat down and started dishing out the contents of the casserole.

**Time Break**

It was late in the evening when Ford came out of his basement lab and into a dark gift shop. He looked at the whole room -- specifically Stan’s little souvenirs -- with an expression of disgust before making his way into the main part of the house, stepping lightly in order to avoid disturbing the quiet. Judging by how much light was left, the kids were more than likely getting ready for bed, which meant that the only other person down on the main floor was Stanley, and Ford wasn’t planning on running into his brother at the moment, thank you very much. He had important work to do, and he wasn’t about to get himself distracted by falling into a petty argument with his brother over some stupid, so-called “attraction.”

The kitchen was empty and dark, but there was noise coming from one of the adjoining rooms -- Stan watching something, no doubt. He probably wouldn’t come in to bother Ford as he perused the food supply for something nutritious for a late supper before going back to his work. Sleep did call to him, but finding a way to either permanently contain or destroy the rift was far more important -- especially now that they had the unicorn barrier up and the glass that the rift was contained in was starting to crack....

As Ford was sampling some of the casserole that Stan had apparently cooked for dinner that night -- decent; Stan must have been taking at least  _ some  _ of Ford’s advice on food -- he looked over at the bowl that was sitting seemingly innocently on the counter, practically overflowing with brightly colored bits of candy that would surely satisfy anyone with a sugar tooth.

Ford finished off his helping of the casserole and put the dishes in the sink; there was still enough left for another meal tomorrow, so the casserole itself went into the fridge. Absently, he lowered his left hand into the pocket of his trench coat and paused.

His stash had run out.

Ford glanced around for a moment; he didn’t see anyone, and it didn’t look like Stan was going to be coming into the kitchen anytime soon. He stepped lightly over to the bowl of jelly beans and started to dip his hand in slowly, making sure that none of the jelly beans fell onto the floor -- which probably hadn’t been cleaned since who  _ knew _ when -- as he extracted a large handful and dropped them into his pocket. He started to reach in for a second handful.

“Grunkle Ford! You  _ do _ have a sweet tooth!”

Ford jumped as the kitchen light turned on suddenly, and Dipper and Mabel suddenly popped up from under the table.

“D-Dipper? Mabel?” Ford blinked in confusion and surprise. “What are you two still doing up?”

“We wanted to see who was taking the jelly beans!” Mabel replied. “I didn’t think it was gonna be you!”

“Yeah -- because of your notes on the fridge, I mean,” Dipper added.

“Oh, trust me, he can’t kick the habit as easily as he’d  _ like _ you to think.”

Ford turned his head as Stan came into the room in his underwear, grinning widely.

“Still got a hankerin’ for your favorites, huh?” Stan asked casually. “I was wondering if you still had a sweet tooth.”

“Well clearly,  _ you _ never lost yours.” Ford looked at Stan’s gut pointedly before looking at him with a deadpan expression.

“Hey. I’ll have you know these two like the chub.” Stan patted his stomach proudly.

“Yeah! There’s more to hug!” Mabel promptly demonstrated by hugging Stan, only to get a noogie from the grunkle and a round of maniacal laughter from them both.

Ford stared at the two of them with an uncertain expression, then noticed Dipper coming over to him nervously.

“Why is it you like jelly beans so much, G-great Uncle Ford?” Dipper asked. “I mean, Mabel likes gummy worms because she can chew them without getting them stuck in her braces, and Grunkle Stan likes toffee peanuts--”

“I know why Stanley likes his preferred sugary concoction,” Ford responded. He paused when he saw the look on Dipper’s face, and smiled a little before looking over at the bowl of jelly beans. He moved some of the beans around, being careful not to be too forceful with them, and picked out a deep blue one that looked like it was bent over double, rather than simply bent slightly like the rest of them. “It was the first place that I was able to find anomalies.”

Dipper’s eyes widened when he saw the strange jelly bean, and he quickly gained a bright, grinning expression. “That’s so cool!”

“Of course you’d think it’s cool,” Stan muttered, stopping his noogie-ing. “It was probably the first place he went to whenever he wanted to find something weird.”

“If you wanna  _ see _ something weird, you should drink Mabel Juice!” Mabel chirped from where she was being held in a one-armed hug from Stan.

“What?” Ford raised an eyebrow.

Stan shuddered and stuck his tongue out in disgust. “Ugh. It’s like coffee and nightmares had a baby -- I wouldn’t recommend trying it.”

“Come on, Grunkle Stan! If he can eat half a bowl of jelly beans in one day, he can handle my recipe.” Mabel slipped out of the hug, smiling brightly.

“Uh..no, I don’t think so.”

“Are you saying you’ve come up with a concoction that works far better than coffee?” Ford blinked a couple times, wrapping his head around what it was that his niece had just said.

“Yup! It works really well, too!”

“If you have as much of a sugar and caffeine tolerance as she does,” Stan muttered.

Ford raised an eyebrow. Apparently, there was something sugary even Stan couldn’t tolerate?

This required further study.

“Mabel? Would it be all right if I took some of this…’Mabel Juice’...and study its effects?” Ford asked carefully.

Mabel’s expression brightened into a wide grin while Stan’s expression flickered with horror for a moment before turning into what looked like a dark amusement that Ford wasn’t so sure about. “Great! I’ll get you some!”

Dipper looked at Ford with an unsure expression as Mabel rushed to the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of pink juice that also had glitter and plastic dinosaurs floating around in it. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Great-Uncle Ford? Mabel’s probably the only one who can actually stand that.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Ford assured Dipper. “I’ve had to stomach things far worse than what can be found here on Earth on my travels; I should be able to handle this.”

Ford awoke sometime the next morning in his basement lab with a sugar hangover and a limited recollection of what he had been up to the night before other than strange hallucinations that matched Mabel’s drawings in his journal involving her coming into contact with something called “Smile Dip.”

He decided that, if he really felt like he needed the sugar, he would stick to the jelly beans.


End file.
